This invention relates to the dispensing of items from a coverable container. This invention also concerns relocating items in a container from a position adjacent to the bottom thereof to a position adjacent to the top thereof. More particularly, this invention concerns a dispenser apparatus that is readily adaptable for insertion in a container such as a pill bottle or vial or the cap of such container to dispense one or more pills at a time easily and without contaminating the remaining pills.
In the past decade, there has been a great deal of attention directed to developing "kiddyproof" containers for pharmaceuticals in pill, tablet, and capsule form. Accordingly, the serious problem of accidential overdosage of young children has been greatly alleviated by the proliferation of many ingenious container closures and pill dispensers.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,067,787; 3,622,041; 3,637,109 and 3,833,147, resilient diaphragms with central openings are utilized in order to dispense pills. All of the devices disclosed in these patents require some manipulation and/or pressure in order to engage the pill in a socket or pocket located in the cover of the pill container. The above-described patents are more concerned with making pill containers "kiddyproof", than with making pill dispensing easier.
The problem of ease of pill dispensing is diametrically opposed to the problem of making pill containers "kiddyproof". A patient who suffers from arthritis, for example, is not so much concerned with taking an overdose of pills, as with being able to easily get a pill out of a pill bottle. It would be quite advantageous to dispense pills without having to reach down to the bottom of a bottle, or spilling out all of the pills and contaminating the same, when the patient only wants to take one or two pills. The present invention alleviates these problems and makes pill dispensing a much easier and more sanitary process.